by Elaine Olsen | Mar 31, 2014 | desert dwelling, Easter, family fun, pilgrimage
The Gospels make it clear—you can’t make the ‘Lenten Journey’ without the desert and wilderness. That forty-day trek is rough terrain. All that stuff about wild beasts, temptations, and hunger, we’d rather not talk about it. And the cruelty of it; “Lord, can we...
by Elaine Olsen | Feb 5, 2014 | conviction, courage, faith, Holy Spirit, pilgrimage, provision, trust, words, writing
When I get to the end of all of this, when I reach the other side of the struggle that’s been weighing so heavily upon me, what do I want to see happen? This is the question I keep asking myself. It’s the question that keeps me awake at night and barely functioning...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 26, 2013 | Advent, christmas, creation, faith, fellowship with God, knowing God, pilgrimage, silence, worship
I’ve been waiting for this day for several weeks now. December 26th – the day after Christmas. No wrapping. No baking. No one needing me quite so much. More peace. More quiet. More time to take a walk beneath the beauty of a setting sun. This is where I found the...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 14, 2013 | Advent, christmas, family fun, parenting, pilgrimage
She held on tightly, arms wrapped fully around my waist and her head burrowed deeply in my coat. “Mom, I don’t want you to go.” Her plea was persuasive but not enough to keep me from loading up the van and making the two hour trek northward to my parents’ home. “I...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 8, 2013 | church life, dad, faith, francis asbury, methodism, ministry life, pilgrimage
She reads to me about his life, this man named Francis Asbury. Do you know of him? I do. I’d better. Why? Well, I’m the daughter of a Methodist preacher. I’m married to one as well. I grew up in Wilmore, KY, home to Asbury College and Asbury Seminary. I graduated from...
by Elaine Olsen | Nov 10, 2013 | faith, family fun, obedience, parenting, pilgrimage
They threw their lanyards on my desk. Safe-keeping I suppose. Mom tucking away treasures for later retrieval, a time when things will be remembered. Events remembered. This remembrance. Pilgrims on pilgrimage. In thinking about this milestone in their journeys of...
